Winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Creative Vision, Rafael Manuel’s debut feature continues its international rise

Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Filipiñana, the debut feature from writer-director Rafael Manuel, developed and co-financed by Film4. The film won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and will screen at the Berlin International Film Festival on 15 February, ahead of a theatrical release in North America later this year.

Executive produced by Jia Zhangke, Filipiñana has drawn strong critical acclaim for its formal precision and political insight. The New Yorker described the film as “a masterwork”, while Vulture and The Hollywood Reporter praised its visual invention and examination of inequality.

Based on his 2020 award-winning short film of the same title, Filipiñana is written, directed, produced, and edited by Rafael Manuel. The film stars Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, and Nour Hooshmand. 

Amid stifling heat and pervasive drought, Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto), a 17-year-old Ilokana from the rural north, works at a posh country club outside Manila, lining up golf balls for powerful men to drive into the verdant horizon. New to the job, she wanders the immaculate grounds sampling its luxuries as members, including an industrialist and his expatriate niece, the club president and his pampered wife, and a slew of Chinese tourists, engage in a complex dance with the club’s doting and subservient staff. But something is rotting beneath the pristine fairways of the elite resort, as Isabel discovers when she tries to return a mislaid golf club to its patriarchal director, Dr. Palanca (Teroy Guzman). The deeper she journeys into its most exclusive corners, the closer she gets to the violent truths of the club, her native Philippines, and her own past. T

Filipiñana is a Film4 co-financed production, produced by Potocol, Ossian International, Epicmedia, Easy Riders Films, and Idle Eye.